West isn't taking part in the war and Russia isn't mounting a serious air campaign. They have surrounded the major cities, no? Cities packed with civilians. They're accusing Kyiv of refusing to let the civilians out via the humanitarian corridors, i.e. using them as human shields. They have refused to do carpet bombing their Western rivals hoped for, but as Chris Hedges points out, eventually, backed into a corner, they may do it. This would be a thousand times even more tragic than things are right now.
The reason I doubt the Western narrative isn't that I think Russians are above incompetence. I'm sure they've carried out more than a few blunders already. It's that the only two narratives about the war currently 'allowed' in Western media circuits is either:
(1) Barbaric Russia pulverizing innocent, helpless Ukrainians
Or
(2) Incompetent Russia failing to pulverize weak Ukraine
They look like spin especially when the Russian version/perspective is entirely blocked out of view., I.e., if Russia went for a full-scale shock-n-awe, they'd be labelled as committing crimes against humanity in a much more serious way than you hear of now. If they did the slow, ground thing, they'd be labelled incompetent. There were many articles already headlining "Russia has already lost this war, regardless of its outcome," two weeks ago. Just smells like something I should give time to before I invest my belief, given the recent past (two decades).
I'm almost 100% sure this story will be radically different in Western papers a year or two from now. They do this all the time. Just that most people move on and don't remember the same media was hyping the literal opposite a year/more back.